Lincoln Would Not Have Voted for Obama

Old Abe is everywhere. TV specials, conferences, books, pins, figurines, and other Lincolnalia celebrate the Illinois Railsplitter's Big 2-0-0. Obama is reading Lincoln. His administration is compared to Lincoln's "team of rivals." In speeches, Obama praises Lincoln as the great unifier of the nation during its greatest crisis.

The problem is, the real Lincoln gets lost in the hoopla. Actually, Lincoln would not have supported an Obama presidency. Though Lincoln opposed slavery, he thought there were racial differences between whites and African Americans that would prevent them from living on equal terms in America. He believed that blacks should shipped out of the country, to Central America or elsewhere. "What I would most desire," he said, "would be the separation of the black and white races." If they did remain here, he said, they should not be on equal terms with whites. "I am not in favor of negro citizenship," he declared in 1858. He explained, "I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, not of qualifying them to hold office, not to intermarry with white people." Before the Civil War, he predicted that it would take a very long time for slavery to disappear--at least 100 years, he said. (Imagine African Americans being held in slavery until the 1950s!)

He initially saw the Civil War as a struggle to save the American Union, not to free the slaves. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation as a war measure. True, toward the end of the war his views became a bit more advanced. He eventually envisaged political rights for African Americans. Still, he said that only "very intelligent negroes" should be given the vote.

We might try to excuse Lincoln's views by saying that he lived in a hidebound era when racism was universal. This is only half-true. Yes, unfortunately, most white Americans back then were racists; Lincoln absorbed the general prejudice. But there were a few visionaries before the Civil War--the abolitionists Wendell Phillips, Lydia Maria Child, and John Brown stand out--who had no racial bigotry and who thought blacks should be integrated into mainstream society. They considered Lincoln and his fellow Republicans backward on race and slavery. Lincoln, for his part, saw the abolitionists as radical fanatics.

It's time for us to remember history's hidden heroes--those who believed in equal rights for everyone, regardless of ethnicity or gender. Lincoln? Let the celebration go on. He did his part by leading the North to victory without letting the Union unravel. But let's not forget those forward-looking abolitionists of his day who, unlike him, would have voted for Obama.

David S. Reynolds is the author, most recently, of Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson.

Comments

[wookierage]

hmmmm....and Jesus wouldn't recognize today's christians as being attuned to his original message....

[nickdoyle]

In the time that Lincoln lived in he would have been ostricized by his white peers had he supported an Obama for president,. I have been told all through my childhood about how Mr. Lincoln needed to save the Union and the only way to get that done was to abolish slavery. My parents and grandparents told me repeatedly about that story. However, he took his fatal trip to the Ford Theater and no one knows what his actions might have been later in his life. Today ,I believe, that Mr. Lincoln would feel the time for change in the air and rolled with it.

[ohioan73]

Sounds like Lincoln was almost having a frightening premonition of what America would be like for the rest of the 19th and much of the 20th century in addition to expressing his segregationist beliefs.

[ParaplegicNomad]

Not that this is a defense of Lincoln, but what made him great was that he got the job done. There were many men and women who supported the abolition of slavery, but they do not all qualify as "great." Some of them were even influential, but how many would have been influential enough to win the Presidency - and thus earn the power to actually enact the Emancipation Proclamation?

But, more importantly, don't be so sure about whether or not Lincoln would have voted for Obama. Yes, he held many of the racist beliefs of his day. But, contrary to your implication in this post, he was able to see past his prejudices and judge individuals by their own merits. Consider his relationship and his opinion of Frederick Douglass.

We'll never really know the truth, but it seems a little bit disrespectful to simplify Lincoln to a soundbite and use that to then extrapolate his position on every issue you can think up.

[OSweet]

So he REALLY WAS REPUBLICAN!!

[rbloom]

OK. With all due respect to Mr. Reynolds expertise in history and his excellent point that the antebellum abolitionists were true American heroes, I have to object to his presumption in telling us what Lincoln would or would not have done today.
He was a complex man living in complex times, and tour times are also complex, fiendishly so. To say that Lincoln would not have voted for Obama because of something he said in 1858 is at best superficial and at worse disingenuous.
I understand that Reynolds' actual point is not who Lincoln would have voted for, but rather the racial views of "the real Lincoln." But again, he ignores the complexity of the man and his times. Assuming Lincoln believed what he said in 1858 (and wasn't saying what he needed to to get elected), we have to remember that the Civil War was transformative for Lincoln as it was for America. He ran in 1860 saying he would do nothing to slavery in Southern states, but would not allow its spread into the territories. He ended up, of course, ending slavery in the states. He said in 1858 he was not in favor of black citizenship, however he later strongly backed the constitutional amendments that did just that.
Would Lincoln have voted for Obama? Who the hell knows? Did Lincoln state publicly many times that he considered blacks inferior to whites? Yes. Did he hold those views the to the end? That's the interesting question.

[RepugsOut08]

Well said.
We're seeing even today with Obama, that what is said on the campaign trail can sometimes "change" after the person gets elected. FDR promised no foreign entanglements in the 1940 campaign, when he well knew we'd have to fight Hitler.
The real tragedy is that Lincoln didn't survive to lead during the post war reconstruction of the South. His stewardship of that endeavor would have given much insight, and would have been so much more of a healing than the punishing hand of his successor.
While I agree with Mr. Reynolds' point that we should honor those true abolitionists, his assumption that Lincoln would not have voted for Obama really makes no sense.
Obama couldn't have run for president during Lincoln's time, and a Lincoln transported to 2008, might have surprised Mr. Reynolds.
After spending time familiarizing himself with his new surroundings and the fruit of his Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln might have decided that the young black man who's message was about bringing a divided nation together again, would be his choice for president.

[flanardiente]

In all likelihood, Lincoln wouldn't have voted for Hillary either.

[MsMadame]

Nice!

[MsMadame]

Cocky, Anglo-male dominance rules America!

[wookierage]

nor would he have voted for Reagan. or Bush I. or Bush II.